Spirit of Manekshaw lives on in Holy City

Amritsar, June 27 (UNI) Old soldiers never die, they just fade away. This seems quite true of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw in this Holy City, where he was born in 1914.

''The spirit of the legendary army commander will live on here,'' Nitin Marwaha said while pointing to the garlanded photograph of 'Sam uncle' placed on the wooden seat where the general's father used to sit in his medical store in the Katra Ahluwalia locality, close to the Golden Temple and the historic Jallainwala Bagh.

The Manekshaw family owned two medical stores in the city-- one in the Katra Ahluwalia locality and the other in Hall Bazaar. When the family migrated to Bombay immediately after the Partition, the Katra Ahluwalia store was given to Devraj Marwaha, grandfather of Nitin while the Hall Bazaar store was handed over to Inder Singh.

The Marwaha family has preserved to this day the chair on which H F J Manekshaw, father of Sam, used to sit in the shop owned by Messrs Sam and Company Chemists and Druggists. As a mark of respect to the departed soul, the Marwaha family placed the photograph of the Field Marshal on his father's chair along with the photographs taken in 1973, when the army commander last visited the place of his birth.

''The photograph of Sam Uncle and his parents will always remain in this shop and at our home,'' Nitin said while pointing out that the elder Manekshaw never took a penny from his grandfather while handing over the shop to him. Devraj Marwaha was an employee at the shop.

The photograph of the General in full army dress also hangs at the drug store in Hall Bazaar, which too was handed over to an employee, Inder Singh, free of cost. The two stores still run in the name of the company floated by the Manekshaws.